Author: Anna

YarnCon is coming!

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Omelet is getting excited about YarnCon!

Don’t tell him, but I haven’t yet decided if he’s coming this year. 😬 But I CAN say that there will be a world of tiny knitted cats and dogs and dinosaurs there, along with plenty of kits, including hand-dyed tiny dinosaur kits that you can check out in person and choose by color combo.

Haven’t heard of Yarncon? It’s just the most fun and interesting yarn market in Chicago! It’s a great place to see what all the cool indie dyers are up to. And they let me unfurl Mochimochi Land there! AND it’s free to attend!

Visit Yarncon April 11-12 at the Chicago Plumbers Union Hall, 1340 W Washington Blvd. Check out the YarnCon website for more info. See you there!

The Gnome Genome Project was 10+ years ago!

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A couple of anniversaries slipped by me last year, so I wanted to take a moment to recognize them before I forgot about them entirely!

First up is The Gnome Genome Project, a 2015 solo show of my gnome-themed knitted work at Everyday Mooonday, a beautiful gallery in Seoul.

This show was a huge undertaking, and a dream of an opportunity to share my world with people on the other side of the globe—and it all happened thanks to gallery owner Diny Lee.

The Gnome Genome project had me mining my psyche for all associations with knitting and gnomes, and the end result comprised a classic tabletop vision of Mochimochi Land, giant gnomes with lilliputian climbers, a community gnome knitting and distribution project, various other gnome sculptures and experiments, and a loop of some of my stop-motion animations.

I was also newly pregnant while installing it (with lots of help from my husband, John). So the memories are a bit foggy, but I recall working very hard, being very unsure whether I could pull it all off, and feeling very happy when it all became real.

Perhaps you contributed gnomes to this project?

Happy Neigh Year

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via GIPHY

Happy New Year!

How appropriate that 2026 is the year of the horse—we’re going to need the fortitude of a whole band of horses to power through. Let’s do this together!

The PDF pattern for these lucky little horses is now available here in my shop and on Ravelry. And we also have kits!

Techniques include I-cord for ears and legs and a tiny bit of mattress stitch to attach the muzzle. Videos will help you at key points along the way.

The Lunar New Year begins February 17th. This is the fifth installment in my series of Chinese zodiac animals. (You can find the others on my website as patterns and kits too.) I’ve personally got to make it through another year if only to knit the next one!

Drool Runnings pattern now FREE with purchase!

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It’s a Mochimochi Land holiday tradition: a brand-new holiday pattern, and it’s free with purchase!

For a limited time, spend $5 on anything in the Mochimochi Shop, use the code DROOL at checkout, and the new Drool Runnings pattern will appear in your cart, like holiday magic! (No need to add the pattern to your cart.)

The pattern is a PDF download that you can access immediately in your browser. A download link will also arrive by email.

Drool Runnings calls for fingering-weight yarn in 7-9 colors and a set of size 1 DPNs. You’ll also need a little polyester stuffing, a small tapestry needle, and two pipe cleaners that you’ll insert into the sled runners.

This little bit of holiday joy knits up in a day or two for quick gifting! At the original size, this project makes an adorable holiday toy (for kids 3 and older), ornament, or tabletop decor (just add fake snow!). You can also scale the whole thing up a bit by using thicker yarn and appropriately sized needles.

Also available as a kit that includes pattern, yarn, stuffing, and pipe cleaners!

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the idea for this pattern came from my dad, and I had so much fun creating the design. I hope these jolly dogs and their super sled will help make your holidays bright too!

My thanks to Marilyn Passmore for tech editing this pattern and to Kristine Brandel for test knitting.

The 2025 holiday kit is here!

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And it’s doggies!

I’m so excited to unveil this year’s Mochimochi Land holiday pattern: Drool Runnings!

These jolly doggies in their speedy sled were inspired by my dad’s stories of racing down any hill he and his siblings could find in their snowy Chicago suburb in the 1950s and ’60s.

For now, this pattern is available as a kit only (with the PDF download coming soon)—you get the pattern and all the yarn, stuffing, and pipe cleaners you need to knit a sled and two pups, Santa hats and all. You’ll need to supply a set of size 1 US (2.25mm) double-pointed needles and a tapestry needle.

Techniques include a few rounds of stranded colorwork, mattress stitch (for assembling the sled), and I-cord. Photos and demo videos will help you along at key points.

The entire project can be knitted up in a day or two, for a quick handmade gift. (And would make a very cute pairing with Short Dog, Long Dog!) Or the kit itself makes a sweet gift for your knitting friends who already have everything.

I wanted this year’s holiday pattern to be absolutely bursting with joy, so I hope that comes through!

Find the kit in the Mochimochi Shop.

Knit tiny crabs with meeeee!

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Knit tiny crabs with me in December!

I’m thrilled to be joining the lineup for Melissa Leapman’s newest virtual tour, Under the Sea!

It’ll be a weekend of aquatic-themed virtual workshops with fiber luminaries Xandy Peters, Franklin Habit, Romi Hill, Holli Yeoh, Safiyyah Talley, Keith Leonard, and Julie Dubreux. And me!

The tiny crabs are a pattern that last appeared in my 2015 book Adventures in Mochimochi Land. Since then, they’ve been waiting for another moment in the sun, and it’s here! The crabs are super quick to make, totally simple, and tons of fun. You’ll want to make so many! Sign up via Melissa Leapman’s website.

A new ✨deluxe✨ tiny dinosaur kit

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New in the shop: a thrilling tiny dinosaur combo kit!

Transport yourself to a time when there was no social media, no creepy drones, and no AI slop. Instead, there were soothing tar pits, exciting volcanic eruptions, and the cutest dinosaurs ever to roam the earth. It’s time for DINO-RAMA!

Inspired by dinosaur dioramas of all kinds, Dino-rama is a new knitting kit that contains the makings of a whole tiny dinosaur play set: intermediate-level patterns, yarn, and stuffing to make THREE different tiny dinos (t-rex, triceratops, and apatosaurus), plus a mini volcano and two wee palm trees!

The majority of the yarn is a beautiful mix-and-match assortment of fingering-weight, hand-dyed yarn from WoolTribe, supplemented by a smattering of Cascade Heritage solids. Plus, each kit comes with a cute little t-rex sticker!


Dino-rama comes packaged in a 6-inch square kraft box, perfect for gifting or knitting on the go. 💝🦖

These are some of my favorite designs from recent years, and I’m so excited to put them together for the first time in this fun kit. We debuted Dino-rama at the crafts industry trade show H+H Americas back in May, and got a very enthusiastic reception from retailers.

I hope you love it too! And maybe it can even take you away briefly to a more playful time and space.

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It’s dinosaur time 🦕✨

Join me in NYC for Vogue Knitting Live this January

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I’m excited to be returning to epic fiber crafts event Vogue Knitting Live in early 2026! This year I’ll be teaching three classes, each of which will feature different kinds of tiny toy knitting fun. General registration is now open!

👯‍♀️ Knit a Tiny You (or anybody!)
In this project-oriented class, we’ll start with a basic pattern for a 1-3”-tall human, then go into all kinds of ways you can customize it to create individuals representing yourself, your friends, your favorite celebs and characters—anything that walks on two legs! Techniques that we’ll cover include I-cord and circular knitting, shaping through basic increase and decrease stitches, embroidery, color work, needle felting, and anything else that might come up through participants’ interests.


🐴 Knit a Teeny-Tiny Good Luck Horse for the Year of the Horse! (NEW!)
We’ll cover tiny toy knitting techniques from basic to intermediate in this class, including knitting in the round on double-pointed needles, I-cords, simple embroidery, and more. You’ll walk out with a horse of your own, or a project that’s well on its way to completion and a skill set that will allow you to knit all kinds of tiny animals.
❗️ The tiny horse pattern for this class hasn’t even been designed yet! It will be brand new for 2026! (Keep an eye on my IG stories for some sneak peeks 👀)


🐱 Knit a Tiny Cat (NEW!)
Let’s knit tiny cats together! In this class, we’ll cover toy techniques, like working with a small number of stitches on double-pointed needles, I-cord limbs, and picking up stitches for ears and a tail. You can choose if you’ll make a walking cat or a seated cat. We’ll also discuss embroidered variations and how to customize your cat by breed.

These classes will be so much fun, and there are so many others now on offer from amazing teachers and designers. Plus a marketplace, yarn giveaways, and plenty of other fun. See you in Times Square!